Monday, July 31, 2017

One of the dead is a young mother who was part of a three-person multiple shooting in Austin on the West Side that included a 19-year-old man and her four-year-old son, they were shot in the arm. The teen is believed to be a gang member.

In Marquette Park on the Southwest Side a 18-year-old man was fatally shot. On the Northwest Side near Belmont and Central a 21-year-old was shot to death while standing near a porch. And a 20-year-old man was gunned down fatally in Longwood Manor on the Far South Side.

Friday, July 28, 2017

A man was shot to death early Friday near the former Cabrini-Green public housing projects on the Near North Side, according to Chicago Police, marking the city’s 400th homicide so far this year.

Just before 3 a.m., two men were in the 500 block of West Iowa when one, age 31, was shot multiple times in the face and the other, 34, was shot repeatedly in the abdomen, police said. The circumstances of the attack were unknown.

The older man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition. The younger man, Kennatay K. Leavell, died at the scene at 3:09 a.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived in the North Side Rogers Park neighborhood.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Illinois is broke and continues to flirt with junk bond status. But the state’s financial woes aren't stopping 63,000 government employees from bringing home six-figure salaries and higher.

Whenever we open the books, Illinois is consistently one of the worst offenders. Recently, we found auto pound supervisors in Chicago making $144,453; nurses at state corrections earning up to $254,781; junior college presidents making $465,420; university doctors earning $1.6 million; and 84 small-town "managers" out-earning every U.S. governor.

And of course nearly all of them qualify for juicy taxpayer-funded pensions.

After a moving speech to the American Legion Boys Nation and the American Legion Aux Girls Nation on the White House lawn--but before the group sang a patriotic song, a reporter that Donald Trump called "very rude" shouted out a question about how he decided to return to the pre-Barack Obama policy of banning transgendered people from the military.

Oddly enough, to my knowledge not one reporter asked Obama about his decision.

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

President Trump tweeted Wednesday that the U.S. government will not allow transgender people “to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military.”

In a series of tweets, he wrote:

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow...Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming..victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

In his weekly address, President Donald J. Trump declared that the "ObamaCare nightmare" will soon be over.

"We are very, very close to ending this healthcare nightmare. We are so close. The legislation working its way through Congress provides the choice and control people want, the affordability they need and the quality they deserve in healthcare," he said.

Friday, July 14, 2017

Of the constant barrage of exaggerated if not completely false stories of collusion between Donald Trump and Russia, Lou Dobbs tells Sean Hannity, "This is about a full-on assault by the left--the Democratic Party--to absolutely carry out a coup d'etat against President Trump, aided by the left-wing media."

Tucked inside the 583-page budget bill are a few pages that detail a hidden tax hike. It's expected to raise $95 million for the state, but it means we'll be paying more every time we fill up our gas tank.

Gas prices in Chicago are currently $0.44 a gallon higher than the national average and they will soon be going up even more.

"It's just ridiculous," said Daphne Stratta, of Chicago. "I mean, gas is already so expensive in this city, I try as much to go to the suburbs, just the taxing is getting more and more."

That's because of the elimination of a 20-percent sales tax credit that was given to wholesalers on unleaded gas containing ethanol. That cost will be passed along to consumers - $0.04 to $0.05 a gallon - depending on where you live.

Congress will soon vote on a bill called the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act that would allow much easier access to over-the-counter hearing aids. And get this: The bill is bipartisan, sponsored by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Joseph Kennedy, D-Mass. (This may be the first and last time I've ever been on the side of Elizabeth Warren!)

Here's why this bill is important to the health and well-being of millions of Americans like me. According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's report "Hearing Health Care for Adults," more than two-thirds of the 30 million people in the U.S. with hearing loss may benefit from hearing aids but do not use them.

Why don't they? Because they're too expensive. A 2014 report by the Consumer Technology Association finds that the high price for prescription aids is a major barrier to consumers. Prescription hearing aids typically cost $1,000 to $6,000, or about 10 times the cost of OTC aids.

Current law prohibits over-the-counter personal sound amplification performance systems (PSAPs) from making any claim to treat hearing loss. The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates hearing aids, places prohibitions on advertising for these cheaper devices, claiming they don't significantly improve hearing. I can personally attest that PSAPs do help, especially when standing in a crowded room with a lot of ambient noise or talking on the phone.

Activists say Monday's rally against a Palos Township Trustee is just the beginning, after a string of Facebook posts the group calls anti-Muslim.

The most recent post by Republican Sharon Brannigan reads 'What is Palos doing? Why are all our schools filling with Middle Eastern students without proper documentation?" Another from 2015 criticizes the community's Muslim population for "keeping themselves and their activities hidden" from others, WBBM's Andy Dahn reports.

Brannigan, please quit now. And all of the other trustees in, for starters, Cook, Lake, and DuPage counties, please resign too.

Township government is a relic of frontier Illinois, it serves no useful purpose other than to provide high-pay and low-work jobs with generous pensions. Oh, sure, township government in Illinois does a few things, such as run food banks, but those duties can quickly be absorbed by other government agencies or, in the case of food banks, taken over by not-for-profits.

Consolidating government units has been hailed, correctly, by Governor Bruce Rauner as a way to save taxpayers money, and as his campaign slogan proclaimed, Bring Back Illinois.

A hearing on the tax has been pushed back until next week, but Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said Tuesday that layoff notices will be going out soon.

Preckwinkle was counting on that tax revenue to generate tens of millions of dollars this year alone, and without it she said she has no option but to take drastic measures. So, starting later this week, more than 1,100 layoff notices will start going out.

"So let me be clear, the crisis is real, so the cuts must be real," Preckwinkle said.

With the court challenge to the county's sweetened beverage tax expected to drag on for weeks or months, the layoffs could not be delayed. And with 87 percent of the county budget going to public health and public safety, the impact will be felt most significantly at county hospitals and the sheriff's department and the courts.

Crook County, Illinois is a sanctuary county and Chicago, its county seat, is a sanctuary city.

Illegal aliens--and unfunded public worker pension plans--can be a real drain on taxpayers, such as for this Cook County resident.

The Democratic Despot, Michael Madigan of Chicago, has been speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives for 32 of the last 34 years. Last week, with the help of the Madigan 15 Republicans, the General Assembly rammed through a 32 percent personal income tax hike.

Not included in the budget bill were pension restructuring and much needed reforms such as workers' compensation law changes or term limits.

Illinois finally has a budget after two years--which some deluded people are claiming is balanced--but the shootings continue in Chicago. Over the weekend two people were shot to death, one in Brighton Park on the Southwest Side and another in Englewood on the South Side. Another 38 were wounded citywide.

Now we have living in the White House a man, President Donald J. Trump, who clearly respects the military. Watch here as he casually picks up the hat of an enlisted US Marine after its blown off by the breeze from the president's helicopter.

After eight years in the wilderness America has a pro-American president. In that spirit, President Donald J. Trump. "Here at the White House," he begins here, "we are dedicating the month of July to three of our favorite words: made in America."

You might think that Democratic legislators — for 14 years the primary architects of a financial fiasco that has created enormous taxpayer debts — would acquiesce on pro-growth economic reforms that our neighboring states have adopted.

You might think the majority party would listen to large and small business owners about the urgent need for more reasonable workers' compensation insurance costs.

You might think Democrats would have advanced another pension reform bill or created a lower-cost, defined contribution plan for new employees, or attempted to change the Illinois Constitution's crushing pension obligation language.

You might think they would have been alarmed at the exodus of residents escaping to states with lower taxes, far fewer debt obligations and less dysfunction.

The Prince of Wales is to issue a warning that the world has only "100 months to act" before the damage caused by global warming becomes irreversible.

As part of a tour of South America, his speech to business leaders in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday will echo predictions made by climate change experts who believe there are about eight years left to cut C02 emissions. He will warn that failure to act urgently could have catastrophic effects for the planet.

The speech will stress the importance of big business joining the fight against global warming. He will say that although the world is in recession, protecting the environment should remain a priority.

Thursday, July 06, 2017

Illinois' Blogger Laureate is ashamed to live in Illinois. That's how bad it is here.

The fix was in on Michael Madigan's tax hike.

In voting for the tax hike--a supermajority was needed because the spring session of the General Assembly had concluded. But Illinois House Speaker, Boss Madigan, somehow convinced 15 Republicans--the Madigan 15--to vote for a 32 percent income tax hike that Governor Bruce Rauner almost immediately vetoed. And a dozen Democrats in vulnerable seats were allowed by Madigan--who has held his job for 32 of the last 34 year--to vote "No."

Madigan is also the chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party.

The Senate had already voted for an override. Now the House has followed. The oppressive tax hike stands.

Click on the below links to politely but firmly express your outrage with the turncoats who voted "Yes" but switched to "No." They were participants in Madigan's ruse.

A couple of entries in West Peoria's Fourth of July parade that depicted various versions of President Donald Trump — including one of the president in a flesh-colored body suit seated on a golden toilet — sparked a deluge of angry calls to City Hall on Wednesday. The entries prompted city officials to apologize for the procedural lapse that allowed the floats into the popular patriotic parade that draws thousands of spectators.

"It has been a bad day," said office assistant Pam Zych, the city employee who fielded the barrage of calls on Wednesday from angry Trump supporters and others who thought the entries were inappropriate.

The first entry was a Cadillac convertible with two people in the back seat impersonating Donald and first lady Melania Trump. Zych said that entry angered callers who thought it was in poor taste because it evoked the image of the assassination of President Kennedy in the Dallas motorcade in 1963. The Melania actor wore a pink pillbox hat, a historic icon that closely identifies with Jackie Kennedy, not the current First Lady.

More...

The entry behind the convertible was more provocative. It included a group of Trump-dressed men raising an American flag meant to recreate the famous photo of American soldiers raising the flag on the island of Iwo Jima in World War II. It contained two women in a cage wearing cat ears next to a sign that read, "Grab that pussycat. Build that wall," a reference to the infamous Trump video where he profanely describes inappropriate behavior toward women. A Trump mannequin sat in a bathtub full of money. And on the back of the float was an implied naked masked-Trump seated on a gold toilet holding a cell phone and presumable crafting his next tweet on Twitter. The toilet paper holder on the float contains images of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, in an apparent equal-opportunity message across political boundaries.

Vile, absolutely vile.

Three years ago the Justice Department investigated another tasteless Independence Day float, this one was of an outhouse dubbed the "Obama Presidential Library."

Who are the Madigan 15? They are the Republican-in-name only members of the Illinois House of Representatives who voted for Democratic Boss Michael Madigan's 32 percent increase tax increase.

Illinois' reform governor, Republican Bruce Rauner, vetoed the tax hike because it contained no reforms to offset the damage. Rauner, and many Illinoisans, are seeking structural changes such as term limits, workers compensation reforms, and property tax freezes.

Madigan's bill has none of those things.

Here are the email addresses of the betrayers of the state GOP and hardworking Illinoisans who are struggling to get by and cannot afford a tax increase.

In your message be firm and civil. Absolutely do not even make a hint at violence.

You may want to send the Madigan graphic that was created by the patriots at the Illinois Policy Institute.

Last week President Donald J. Trump, posted a mock video of himself on Twitter wrestling and body-slamming a person with a CNN logo in place of his head.

That completely freaked out CNN as well as the rest of the establishment media.

That video was originally posted on Reddit, and the user apparently posted some nasty racist videos in the past. CNN found out who the Reddit guy is. Why, Greg Gutfeld, doesn't CNN track down rioters? The worldwide leader in fake news says they won't expose the identity of the creator of the video because he apologized and he vowed not to post any more inflammatory videos. But on the other hand, CNN hasn't ruled out revealing his identity.

Wednesday, July 05, 2017

Tomorrow that Illinois House is expected to vote on whether to override Governor Bruce Rauner's veto of Boss Madigan's massive income tax hike. Among those voting "Yes" were 15 Republicans--traitors, in my opinion.

The odds of an override are bleak, as the tax bill--with no reforms--passed with a supermajority.

But there is still hope. A fool's hope, perhaps, but it's there.

The Chicago Tribune, in an op-ed, issues caution to those plan to vote for the override.

•Can you assure your constituents you've delivered solutions to the problems that cripple Illinois and its economy, that alienate employers, and that drive our young people by the tens of thousands to other states?

•Have you delivered a no-gimmicks property tax freeze to even slightly offset the extra $5 billion or so that you'll take out of taxpayers' pockets?

•What about pension reforms? Have you tamed the beast that eats a quarter of the state's operating budget and crowds out so many priorities? Maybe you arranged for new hires to go into something other than a defined-benefit pension system?

•Did you deliver consolidation of those 7,000 local governments? Surely you grabbed that low-hanging way to reduce citizens' tax burdens, right?

There are other burdens facing Illinois, such as the lack of term limits--Madigan has been speaker of the state House for 32 of the last 34 years, as well as the state's anti-business workers compensation laws.

I live five miles from Chicago's city limits--and I make it a point not to shop for groceries there, as does Mrs. Marathon Pundit. The sales tax there is already one-percent more than it is in the suburb where I live. And Chicago has the nation's highest sales tax rate.

And the taxing does not stop there. For instance, Chicago started collecting a new seven-cents per plastic or paper bag tax on New Year's Day, which was put in place to regulate behavior. Yes, another sin tax. But as I've written many times before, social engineering taxes always fall short of revenue forecasts. Take smoking. When tobacco taxes are hiked some people smoke less or even quit, or they buy their cigarettes elsewhere. And politicians, especially in spend-a-holic places like Chicago, already know how they are going to spend its new revenue. And when the revenue falls short, the spending level of course doesn't decrease. So other taxes go up. Which is one of the reasons why Chicago is the only major city with negative population growth.

As for that bag tax, Chicago officials estimated--or should I say guessed?--that over $9 million would be added to the city's coffers by this tax in 2017.

But as that radio report was airing Chicago was in the midst of a 12-hour surge from hell when an astounding 42 people were shot between 3:30pm yesterday and 3:30am this morning.

At least 101 people were shot over the four day weekend--15 of them fatally. Most of the shootings occurred in the traditional killing zones of the West and South Sides. In 2013, the last time Independence Day weekend lasted four days, only 74 people were shot in Chiraq.

Tuesday, July 04, 2017

In his first Independence Day as leader of the free world, President Donald J. Trump told members of the military and their families who were picnicking on the White House grounds "I will always have your back."

"There could be no greater privilege than serving as your commander-in-chief," the president told those gathered on the South Lawn, with First Lady Melania Trump along his side. "I pledge my unwavering support for you, for your families and your missions."

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) is the undertaker of the state, as I've said many times. He's held his job for 32 of the last 34 years and he's also the chairman of the state Democratic Party. Illinois just entered its third straight year without a budget and Madigan's Dems have had since January to come up with one. But Madigan is only interested in power, not governing.

When news broke that there would be no budget votes this weekend--although now there may be one today--a DuPage County Republican representative, Grant Wehrli, yelled out "Speaker Junk!"

Good for him. The time for civility in ILL-inois--after 34 years of the Democratic Despot in power--is over.

Unless the Democrats, who hold a supermajority in the state Senate thanks to Madigan's gerrymandering skills, and a near supermajority in the House, passes a budget bill that Republican governor Bruce Rauner signs into law, Illinois' bond ratings will fall into junk status. Rauner was sent to Springfield as an antidote to Madigan.

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